A lively crowd of veteran and newcomer TASHers gathered in the spacious ballroom tonight for a TASH Night Out fundraiser. I was charged with designing an opening \u201cice breaker.\u201d\u00a0So members of the development committee and I greeted diners with an odd request:\u00a0 \u201cTurn around so we can put this name tag on your back.\u201d\u00a0Thus started the \u201cWho Am I?\u201d icebreaker where people had to guess who they were by simply asking yes\/no questions. Some were pleased with their newfound celebrity status while others were insulted with the mere association.\u00a0Sharon Lohrmann was George W. Bush and not too pleased about it!\u00a0The event attracted TASH members and supporters from across the country, and was truly a warm and eclectic mix of people.<\/p>\n
A solo guitarist provided background music and a PowerPoint of TASH Night Out parties looped as we dined and got caught up on each other\u2019s lives. \u00a0Carol Quirk, TASH President, called upon several TASH members to come to the podium to share a TASH memory in honor of our 35th<\/sup> anniversary.\u00a0 Ralph Edwards spoke about TASH\u2019s vision \u2013 both in its rich history and going forward into the future; Anne Smith recalled seeing Sue Rubin do a presentation using Facilitated Communication and the significant impact that had on her; Susan Yuan spoke of Herb Lovitt and how he taught us a new way of thinking and acting in support of people with challenging behaviors.\u00a0 Susan also said, \u201cTASH feeds my soul.\u201d\u00a0 As it does so many of us, Susan!!\u00a0 Emily Titon, self-advocate from Rhode Island talked about her \u201cTASH family\u201d \u2013 the people she\u2019s met through TASH and in particular TASH New England.\u00a0 Sandi McClennen announced that Michigan is institution and ICF\/MR free \u2013 which resulted in cheers from the crowd.\u00a0 She said the 1989 TASH Conference presentations about FC and the presumption of competence was \u201clife changing\u201d.\u00a0 Ed Bielecki, long-time TASH members who just returned to the fold talked about the TASH Conference when he lost track of his daughter, Bonnie, on the elevator.\u00a0 Sue Schaffer from Seattle talked about TASH being \u201cbase.\u201d\u00a0 Barb Coppens appreciates TASH for the opportunity to advocate.\u00a0 She said what so many of us feel, \u201cI have a passion.\u201d\u00a0 And Nancy Ward, long-time Board member is thankful to be able to share ideas with like-minded people.\u00a0 She used the term \u201ccouch talking\u201d to describe the conversation klatches where she and others would debrief from the day and share stories, ideas and debates.<\/p>\n The evening ended with awards for outgoing Board members Curtis Richards and Nancy Ward.\u00a0 As a newly elected Board member, I deeply appreciate their time and commitment to TASH by serving the organization in this manner.<\/p>\n TASH Night Out\u2026a social for social justice\u2026a way to \u201cfeed our soul.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lively crowd of veteran and newcomer TASHers gathered in the spacious ballroom tonight for a TASH Night Out fundraiser. I was charged with designing an opening \u201cice breaker.\u201d\u00a0So members of the development committee and I greeted diners with an odd request:\u00a0 \u201cTurn around so we can put this name tag on your back.\u201d\u00a0Thus started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tash.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}